Straw-bale Building United Kingdom
UK’s First ever EPD for Straw!
For the first time this gives an accurate assessment of the environmental impact of straw production in the UK. This was made possible by the European Up Straw INTERREG funded project.
Led by The School of Natural Building this Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) is hugely significant as it not only stamps its importance in the use of straw as an insulation material but will enable the construction sector to cite it as a relevant tool in lowering carbon emissions in the built environment.
Well done all at The School of Natural Building! More info is here
How easy is it to find and use natural building materials? riba interview with Janna lann/grain architecture
Here is a great article by RIBA on natural building materials featuring Grain Architecture’s Janna Laan Lomas.
Janna will be presenting at RIBA’s online event: Guerilla Tactics, 9th – 11th November. Programme details are HERE and tickets are HERE
A project of Grain Architecture‘s is below, built in collaboration SBUK members Joe Duirwyn (Hartwyn) and Jeffrey Hart
Households declare
Energising our buildings has never become more important than now.
The savvy among you would have been content to be up to speed with an ‘EPC’ or ‘U-Value’ but nowadays, the general public in the UK are seeing terminologies such as, ‘Whole House Approach’, ‘External Wall Insulation’ (EWI), ‘Internal Wall Insulation’ (IWI), ‘PAS 2035’ and ‘Retrofit’ as part of their everyday vocabulary.
What does it mean and why has it become so popular headline in our everyday lives?
Like-minded groups such as AECB, ASBP, CAT, STBA and the Architects Journal have admirably championed for the interrelated pathways of Retrofitting (better materials/products, more training et al) and more recently LETI published their formidable document, Climate Emergency Retrofit Guide which joins all of the dots of what can be a very confusing landscape.
Our friends, the Architects Climate Action Network (ACAN) have set up the campaign ‘Households Declare’ and in a very simple to understand, and concise way, spell out to the government that we need to do more in enabling ‘retrofit’ as part of the construction industry’s outlook in the built environment.
We, at SBUK support this, and with ACAN ask you to declare a climate emergency for your homes.
Declare HERE
job: sbuk secretary role
We have a vacancy on our Board.
For a full specification of the role, please see and apply here: SBUK Secretary
Good luck!
building the future studio 3 arts community centre
The School of Natural Building are working with Studio 3 Arts to build an extension on their community centre.
Designed by architects company, Citizens Design Bureau and built by GPF Lewis and Wellspring Architecture, this is a transformation in London’s Barking and Dagenham. Read more here
Not only is the work carried out using low carbon materials including strawbales but a course next week with the School of Natural Building – 23rd to 27th August – will cover practical aspects of strawbale building: how to dress and customise bales, notching, loadbearing and infill techniques, compression of the wall, and much more. See here to enrol on the course
This project demonstrates the power of public sector partnering: in making change for the local community through Government; local statutory bodies and interdepartmental support and resources – in essence, everything we worked with UPSTRAW to deliver
Yesterday the bales were delivered – the work and fun now begins!
european strawbale gathering (ESBG) – sbuk webinar 2021
The full video of our ESBG webinar 2021 is now available here: click on a timestamp below, or, on one of the images to go to directly to a chapter
00:00 History of ESBG & introduction to SBUK’s webinar by Cypren Edmunds 07:29 StrawBale Building Basics with Phil Christopher 26:24 Cement Free Foundations with Barbara Jones 1:15:28 Q&A with Phil Christopher, Cypren Edmunds & Barbara Jones 1:36:35 Strawbuilding Project Examples with Chris Hawker 2:05:07 Technical Guide with Barbara Jones 2:34:03 Q&A with Cypren Edmunds, Chris Hawker & Barbara Jones 2:48:26 Airtightness with Paul Jennings 3:07:53 Whole LIfe Carbon: what it is and means for our materials choices with Joe Duirwyn 3:29:51 Straw & Mud: A Love Story with Jeffrey Hart 3:54:51 Q&A with Phil Christopher, Joe Duirwyn, Cypren Edmunds, Paul Jennings & Barbara Jones 4:14:56 What is SBUK & how do you join? with SBUK Directors: Phil Christopher & Cypren Edmunds
Associated weblinks from the webinar are at the bottom of this page
ESBG/SBUK Webinar Links
European StrawBale Association
Hawkland Ecological Construction
Todmorden Learning Centre (Tod College)
Defining and Aligning: Whole Life Carbon & Embodied Carbon
Embodied Carbon – what is it and how to compare materials?
Getting to grips with whole-life carbon
architect climate action network – video of masterclass: straw
Now online for you to view at your leisure is the ‘Straw’ Masterclass we took part in last month.
Thank you ACAN 🙌 💚 for the platform to speak about this beautiful, natural material & to all speakers who participated. Click on the image below for the video
Enjoy 🙂🌾👷🏾♂️👷🏗🏠
ESBG 2021 – SBUK webinar
Our schedule for The European Strawbale Gathering (ESBG) 2021 on Saturday 31st is here
In the evening (7pm BST / 8pm CEST) we will be joining up with the European Strawbale Association for a special presentation
Click here for tickets now
architects climate action network | natural material masterclass | straw
A panel of expert speakers met last night to present the benefits of constructing with straw, the data behind the resources and the heritage of this natural building material in Architects Climate Action Network‘s (ACAN) Masterclass for Straw
A captive audience, comprising of practioners from the built environment to keenly interested people were treated to a two hour session of education and fun!
The effectiveness of this material has been hotly debated over the years, misunderstood and misrepresented. Backed up with science, the audience listened to the statistics to support its robustness and debated its relevancy.
Engaging conversation about community bonding to delivery of healthy alternatives for the domestic and public sector, heightend the audience’s awareness to building with strawbales and straw panels.
The event also acted as a launch for tonight’s start of European Strawbale Gathering 2021 (ESBG 2021).
SBUK members Barbara Jones, Phil Christopher, Joe Duirwyn and Cypren Edmunds are presenting at this festival with other European organisations of the European StrawBale Association (ESBA).
If you missed the start of ESBG 2021, there were some spectacular tours of properties in Poland, Germany, Switzerland and Estonia
Don’t miss out tomorrow or Sunday – Click on the picture above for tickets now!
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